Published September 17, 2007

On Human Rights and Globalization

Friday in Seoul, the Peter Drucker Society of Korea presented innovation awards for social responsibility, innovation and lifelong learning to corporations, NGOs and a city government. In Geneva in July, Ban Ki-moon, the Secretary General of the United Nations, met with 1,000 corporate CEOs and other delegates at the Global Leaders Summit Meeting of the UN Global Compact in Geneva to discuss ways to voluntarily advance human, labor and environmental rights and to combat corruption. At the opening session, the CEO of Coca-Cola joined the head of Amnesty International and the new foreign minister of France in advocating multinational corporations to speak out, stand up and step up to the challenge of doing good while doing well. A week earlier, in Claremont, California delegates from ten nations gathered at the Drucker Institute for the first Global Symposium of Drucker Societies, dedicated to advancing responsible management practices in business, government and civil society that capture the principles and practices of Peter Drucker, the father of modern management who challenged leaders to be both effective and ethical. Leaders from China, Korea and Japan joined others from Australia, New Zealand, Europe, Canada and Brazil in calling for enlightened capitalism and strengthened nonprofit institutions to create prosperous and just societies based upon life-long learning and respect for employees and the environment.

At a time when globalization raises legitimate fears and concerns about a "race to the bottom" and a winner-take-all economy, these three events, thousands of miles apart, offer hope that globalization may yet become a "race to the top" in which responsible business leaders join with government and nongovernmental organizations in creating a rising tide that lifts many more boats and allows for sustainable growth and a better chance for the next generation.

I was privileged to host the meetings in Claremont and to serve as one of six business school deans from around the world who were delegates to the Global Compact Leaders Summit in Geneva. I was proud to be the keynote speaker at the Drucker Society of Korea Innovations award ceremony and to address Korea's CEO Forum last week about the leadership role that Korea's Peter Drucker Society is playing in applying people-oriented management practices to all sectors of society. I came away from all three events encouraged and inspired and somewhat amazed at the potential and the power of voluntary collaboration across sectors and across nations to make progress on some of the most fundamental challenges facing the world today, including global warming, income inequality, and social justice.

It was at the United Nations General Assembly back in 2000 that then-Secretary General Kofi Annan held the first meeting of the UN Global Compact --a voluntary commitment by businesses to work in partnership with others to abide by and to advance ten universal principles in the areas of human rights, labor, the environment and anti-corruption. From modest beginnings with fewer than 50 corporations signing on and with skeptics far outnumbering participants, the UN Global Compact has grown to over 3,000 participating companies -- including Microsoft and Nike and Shell and Yuhan-Kimberly, plus hundreds of other stakeholder groups from more than 100 countries, to become the world's largest voluntary corporate citizenship initiative.

Why would multinational corporations agree to embrace the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and agree to combat corruption and to ensure the rights of workers to organize wherever companies operate around the globe? Why would Coca-Cola make a commitment to reduce its consumption of water in the production of its products to zero? Why would DHL commit to using its delivery capabilities to provide for disaster relief from New Orleans to Sri Lanka? Why would Cisco launch 10,000 networking academies with 500,000 students in 166 countries across the globe? Why does Procter and Gamble collaborate with the CDC and the International Nurse's Association in providing anti-malarial bed netting in Africa? Why would Yuhan-Kimberly plant a Drucker Forest, and why would the Incheon International Airport Corporation commit itself to lifelong learning for its employees and to educational innovations for communities that surround it?

Because they have decided that they are able to create value for shareholders while also advancing social and environmental benefits. They are convinced that collaboration and partnership pays off, and that in helping the "bottom of the pyramid" to participate in the positive benefits of globalization, business benefits as well as markets expand, poverty and failed states decline, and trust builds.

In the war for talent, these companies have decided that to attract and retain the best and the brightest requires a genuine and enduring commitment to principles and values. And as these companies build global supply chains to support their global brands, they are discovering that their customers as well as their employees expect them to be responsible not just profitable, a force for good.

What began less than a decade ago as largely a guilt-driven response to opponents of globalization; the corporate responsibility movement is becoming transformed as business increasingly sees itself as an agent of world benefit. In a study prepared for the Global Summit, McKinsey surveyed CEOs from around the world. 84% today view the responsible business practices of initiatives like the UN Global Compact as a core part of their business conduct. No longer managing defensively, these corporations increasingly are engaging with stakeholders, gaining reputational capital and using cutting-edge commitments in the developing world as a source of innovation and a magnet for talent. Goldman Sachs unveiled a new measure of ESG (environmental, social and governance) performance of leading companies that demonstrates a high correlation with industry leaders and financial valuation. It also includes the finding that companies that pay higher wages generally achieve better financial results.

The Global Symposium of Drucker Societies was no less startling or inspiring. Assembled in Claremont was an unusual group of business and civic and academic leaders from ten countries who are committed to taking Peter Drucker's practices and principles to new markets through new methods. Here in Korea, led by Mr. Moon, formerly of Yuhan-Kimberly, corporate CEOs are spending four hours a month in a book group discussing the relevance of Drucker's insights to contemporary Korean society -- and they are more than half way through Drucker's forty books on topics ranging from innovation and creativity to business and society and the role of the knowledge worker.

In China, "Drucker windows" -- compact libraries with a full set of translated materials -- are being established at 5-10 universities a year so that the next generation of business and civic leaders will have access to Drucker's works, and 12,000 future leaders have already graduated from coursework at so-called Drucker Academies.

Next week, a thousand business and civic leaders will meet under the auspices of the Drucker Academy of China to explore the requirements for innovation and entrepreneurship -- not only in business, but also in the social sector.

In Japan, led by Professor Atsuo Ueda, the Drucker Workshop meets twice a year in a retreat where more than 100 CEOs contemplate the lessons of the master and how they can continuously improving their social and environmental practices from one another.

The Australian Association of Management, with 35,000 members, is devoting its annual convention this week to Drucker and the importance of building strong societies through healthy and sustainable organizations and is hearing from Doris Drucker and Tom Peters, among many others, about the powerful impact of Peter's life and legacy.

In Switzerland, a newly-formed Drucker Society is promoting a new generation of social entrepreneurs in Europe, and in Dallas a group has started to coalesce around applying Drucker's analysis and insights to address local problems.

As part of the Global Summit in Geneva, the Secretary General was presented with The Principles for Responsible Management Education -- a product of task force members representing institutions such as Harvard Business School, MIT, Yale School of Management, Thunderbird, INSEAD in France, EGADE in Mexico, Keio in Japan, and Tsinghua in China. Those of us who sign on to this call for action by developing the capabilities of students to be future generators of sustainable value for business and society at large and to work for an inclusive and sustainable global economy, have an instrumental role to play. And this next generation of MBAs along with business, governmental and nonprofit leaders seem ready and eager for the challenge.

These developments alone will not cure the world of the daunting problems that face our future. But by scaling up the partnerships, innovations and practices of the growing numbers of adherents of the Global Compact, by encouraging the breath-taking work of Drucker Societies around the world, and by embedding a new set of competencies and values in the next generation of business leaders around the world through a new business school curriculum, they do offer encouragement and evidence that the forces of globalization can be harnessed for social good as well as private profit, and that business, if it adheres to principles, can play an instrumental role as a force for good around the world.

Peter Drucker once said that "the best way to predict the future is to create it." Here in Korea, in China, around the world through the 4,000 members of the UN Global Compact, at the Drucker School and the Drucker Institute in Claremont, I sense the future is being created, today.

 
Ira A. Jackson, Dean
The Peter F. Drucker and
Masatoshi Ito Graduate School of Management
Claremont Graduate University
Claremont, California